Where the World Began
by Crimson Release
Summary: In an early world of war, drafts and poverty, it pays to be nameless. Pairings and ratings may vary.
1. Weary Traveler

**Pre-Story notes:  
**I've just gone over the story again and made some adjustments with grammar, spelling and spacing. I'd love to keep this story up, so please, review.

**Description:**  
In an early world of war, drafts, and poverty, it pays to be nameless. Duo Maxwell, a stranger and a man without a title, finds himself in a friendly village; confident that he can leave behind the warmth of friendship and forget the smiles and memories whenever he felt it right, he works to pursue a short-term lifestyle. However, love and friendship sometimes have strange ways of holding a man and keeping his soul a blessed prisoner.

**Rating:**  
M for language and adult content, moving most likely to NC-17 later on. I will warn you a chapter ahead, just in case ' pay attention to the Author's notes from here on in.

**Disclaimer:**  
Do I really have to keep making these? You know, and I know, that I did not create Gundam Wing or any of it's characters. So quit bitching and shove those lawyer's back in your pockets; I only have 27 cents in my pocket anyways.

**Where the World Began**

_Crimson Release_

**Chapter 1: **Weary Traveler.

All children are born with a sense of daring, and with a thirst that even milk from a mother's breast cannot quench; All of us dreaming a dream we could not sleep through. Adventure. Excitement. Mystery.  
The children of my age were born with a wooden sword in hand, and a fairy-tale shield risen above us. The world was wide and ripe for the taking, in the eyes of our generation. At least, it would have been, if it could survive the abuse it was taking from our predecessors.

The world, as it always had, debated war and peace within itself. Boys and men alike had been lost to gunfire for years before and after my sudden appearance in this place. Orphaned at such a young age, and a wanderer soon after, no records of my name or birth date existed. While I had mourned my lack of identity in my early years, I had quickly learned to count my losses and began to appreciate my state of nothingness; it had saved me from the draft that cleared the fields and deadened the towns, as efficiently as the plague.

I had happened onto the main street that led past a painted post, welcoming travelers into OZ County's valley township, Sanc-Town, purely by chance. Sanc-Town, like so many others I had passed, had been hit hard by the draft. All of the poor village boys that had once worked together in the community fields that their fathers could no longer manage had been whisked away to fight a war that should not have touched them. It really was a sorry sight, I decided, while walking along the worn, dirt path. I could practically taste the emptiness in the air with each breath I took, but at the same time, I knew that the town's loss was my gain, and I had learned long ago not to feel any remorse in taking advantage of the situation.

Boys like me were valuable in places like these; young, strong, and nameless. I reveled in this fact as I trudged along the path, while whistling a cheery tune and stepping in time with the chestnut streaked braid that swung in an arc down past my waistline. With only those to young or old for a soldier's life, I was sure to be accepted. The work would be hard, and the days long, but I would have food, and a bed and bath water at ready whenever I needed, and when things went down in my adopted home- whether it be a result of the return of what was left of the town boys, or a regressive wave that came on occasion with the depression, I would steal what food I could and climb these valley hills, in reverse order of my coming.

"Well," I heard myself drawl over chapped lips, the accent I carried from the America's tailing my words nostalgically. "It seems as if I have wandered upon a new home!"

There were a fair amount of houses, all with their own designated smoke stacks, now standing empty because of the warm weather. Stray chickens wandered between the houses, some returning to nests made under the risen porch of the local Mercantile. It wasn't a terribly poor town, I supposed, and was probably more comfortable then most considering its size.

Before taking another step, I noticed a crooked figure in the distance, and called out a few short words of greeting and waved my hand in the air.

Ambling down the main road, an elderly man tipped his hat in my direction, and left it to hang over the glazed white of his right eye. He wore a dirty set up over-alls, and a plaid shirt beneath the grubby straps that clung to his shoulders. It didn't take much for me to catch up with the old guy, even though he had turned to continue on his way, past the townhouses. Once I had fallen in step with him, I smiled good-naturedly.

"Hey there, old man."

"Hey yourself." He replied, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"What can you tell me about this place?" I asked, right away. Maybe I sounded over eager, or perhaps my accent sounded strange to him, because he was smiling.

"This place, huh?" He said, a low chuckle escaping with his words. "This place is where the world begins, my boy, no matter where you've come from. And this," he continued, and nodded in the direction the town led, past the fields and north, towards the mountains. "This is where it ends."

What I was sure had been meant as a welcome sounded cryptic, prophetic even. With a late summer sun beating down on my shoulders, I felt a chill run down my spine, and shivered.

"What do you mean by that, Old man?" I inquired with more of a tremor in my voice then I would have liked.

"I mean what I said, son. All of the people that I've met, passing through, this place keeps them." He raised a heavy gray brow and winked, flashy a toothy grin that failed to relax me entirely. "One thing or another usually ties them to these old valley hills."

Shrugging my shoulders, I shook off the uneasy feeling that had overtaken me as best I could and flashed an infamous Maxwell grin. "Whatever you say, then. I'm Duo Maxwell," Offering my hand to the stranger, I winced when I felt the joints in my fingers grind together in his grip. "A pleasure. . ."

"Eugene Baxter. It's real pleasin' meeting you, Mister Maxwell!"

"Duo, Sir. Just Duo." I said over a wince after withdrawing my throbbing hand from his. "Nobody has added on any fancy prefix to my name before, and I should hate to think they'd start with that now."

"As you say then, lad. Call me Baxter, everyone does 'round here." Smiling as warmly as he had before, he folded his arms over a plush waist, and asked, after resuming his pace: "Tell me, _Duo_, why have you come to Sanc-Town?"

"By accident, really." I shrugged my shoulders and followed him. "I search out work in empty towns, robbed by the military."

"A nameless one, are ya?" I grinned in response and he continued. "We could use another like you. We've needed some strong youth for some time now. You understand we cannot pay in anything except food, shelter and kindness?"

"Yes Sir… Baxter… That's fine. I'm just looking for a place to get by."

"You'll find that here, sure enough."

"Where would I stay, S- Baxter?" Most times you came to a town like this, you'd find yourself in the spare bedroom of one of the larger town houses, or even sharing one with another. In my experience, I had learned to be wary. Sharing a bed with two sets of twins, both young and of opposite genders, had been compromising.

"Well, if you were the first I'd say you'd stay with me, but the others have taken the spare room. Aside from that, most everyone 'round here has their hands full with their own young'ens."

"There are others like me?" I said, my eyes growing wide. I hadn't met up with another who was nameless in quite some time. Two years, maybe, and he had been a few years younger than me, anyway.

"An Austrian boy and Asian boy. Neither talk much, and both stay with me."

"Huh." Folding my hands behind my head, thoughts of my sleeping arrangements slipped my mind in favor of the nameless boys. Both of them foreigners like myself, and all of us lacking a true identity.

"But then, I guess I'm forgetting the third." Baxter continued, "You'll have to beg my pardon, lad, he is barely familiar to any of us now." He rose a plump hand and counted off three knarled fingers. "He showed up not too long ago, and faced the same living problems as you are."

"Oh really? Well, how did it work out for him?" I tossed a sidelong glance towards the old man, curious as to whether or not he could really help my living situation.

"Well, the doctor's son took him in. He's a wealthy man, got everything of his fathers when the good doctor passed, rest his soul, and lived alone in the big house over yonder." He nodded his head in the direction of a large, modern looking house, which loomed above the rest of the town. "If you think that would be a good enough place to stay, I'll take you up there myself."

_Good enough_? I repeated those words a few dozen times in my head, keeping my slow smile hidden by keeping my head tilted in the direction of the wonderful house. "I guess that'll do for me." Was my answer and enough for the old man to slap me hard across the shoulder with a gruff laugh, before leading me past the town and up to the house on the hill.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Well, how is that for a first chapter? Kind of short. If the spacing makes this hard to read, please tell, and I'll work on modifying that. Anyways, I'm going to start on an update for this chapter right away. I hope you keep reading, because I can tell this is going to be a fun piece of writing. 

Please, Review!


	2. House on the Hill

**Description:**  
In an early world of war, drafts, and poverty, it pays to be nameless. Duo Maxwell, a stranger and a man without a title, finds himself in a friendly village; confident that he can leave behind the warmth of friendship and forget the smiles and memories whenever he felt it right, he works to pursue a short-term lifestyle. However, love and friendship sometimes have strange ways of holding a man and keeping his soul a blessed prisoner.

**Rating:**  
M for language and adult content, moving most likely to NC-17 later on. I will warn you a chapter ahead, just in case ' pay attention to the Author's notes from here on in.

**Disclaimer:**  
Do I really have to keep making these? You know, and I know, that I did not create Gundam Wing or any of it's characters. So quit bitching and shove those lawyer's back in your pockets, I have 27 cents in my pocket anyways.

**Where the World Began**

_Crimson Release_

**Chapter 2: **House on the Hill.

Baxter had led me up the worn gravel path to the house, knocked on the door, and left me to stand and wait on the front porch after letting himself in. He had been gone for quite some time, and the ache in my stomach was steadily increasing, making sure I was completely aware of every second that inched by.

"What is taking that old man so long?" I wondered aloud to myself, and not for the first time. "What is he hanging his jaw on about for so long, anyway?"

"Your home arrangements, actually." A sweet, cultured voice answered from behind me. Standing in the doorway, a well dressed blonde that looked to be about my age stood, shaking hands with Baxter.

"Ah! Well then, I guess the wait wasn't too bad." I said quickly, a lopsided grin slashed across my flushed face. "You don't mind taking in a drifter then, Sir?"

"I should say not!" The boy said with a musical laugh that left my ears pleasantly ringing. "On one condition- Duo, isn't it?"

"Yes Sir. Duo Maxwell."

"Well then, Duo Maxwell, could you please address me as Quatre, rather than 'Sir'? I doubt I'm hardly the same age as you are, and hold no title over you anyways." Quatre smiled and extended his hand to me, clean, pale, and void of any calluses that came from hard work. I nearly blushed to see the dramatic contrast between my unkempt, dirty fingernails against his, clear and neatly manicured.

I grinned, sure that I looked completely idiotic in his eyes. "Sure thing, Quatre."

"Keh-heh. You look as if you've had your feathers ruffled, Duo." Baxter commented from his place on the sidelines, which earned him, on Quatre's pretty face, an even sweeter smile. I had opened my mouth to protest, when a guttural moan from my mid-section interrupted me. Now, blushing like a virgin maid, both men laughed. "I guess I'll be takin' my leave, Mister Quatre, so that maybe you can offer this one something to eat."

"Goodbye then and thank you." Quatre answered and waved at Baxter's retreating form before turning to smile up at me. "As for you," I swallowed, finding the friendly brightness in Quatre's eyes slightly imposing. "Come inside before you waste away!"

"Yes sir." I choked out, stricken speechless by the smaller boy's kind eyes and attractive smile.

"Quatre, please."

"Yeah. Right. Sorry."

- - -

"Here we are!" Quatre sang, throwing open a solid wooden door and ushering me through. "This will be where you sleep. I'm afraid, you'll have to share with the other boy- He's the other nameless that stays with me, you know- Is that alright?"

"Yeah, of course it is." I said, happy that there were two designated beds, both looking comfortable, and both nicely made, separated by a cherry wood nightstand.

"Do you like it?" Quatre pressed meekly, his soft hands folded behind his back. "I would have offered you your own room, but I haven't yet moved my things into my late Father's room, you see, and I…"

"Hey, don't worry about it." I interrupted cheerily, and blushed at his appreciative smile. "Sorry."

"No offense taken, Duo, I assure you. Thank you for understanding." A comfortable silence fell between us as he watched me explore the side of the room that was without any belongings which was now mine, while Quatre watched me with an unreadable expression.  
This house was wonderful, radiating of homeliness and comfort. My host seemed kind and sweet, and I was sure we would get along. And as for my mystery roommate, I was sure that he would have to be as lighthearted as young Quatre. "Is there anything else you need?" The blonde pressed, distracting me from my thoughts.

"Mm, no, I'm fine, I think." I turned to return Quatre's smile and nodded. "Thanks."

"No thanks needed, friend; it is because of people like you that our poor town has survived." Bowing slightly, Quatre stepped back to retreat into the hallway. "I will send up a light tray, and will have your roommate fetch you when Dinner is ready, later on. Till later then." He rose a pale hand.

"Wait, Quatre?" I called, just as he was about to shut the door. A pair of bright eyes flashed from beyond the doorjamb, waiting for my request.

"Yes, Duo?"

"What is his name-? My roommate, that is."

"Oh, I never told you? My apologies." He flashed what I could have sworn was a wicked smile, and my breath caught in my throat. "Heero, Duo; his name is Heero Yuy."

* * *

******  
Author's Note: **Dun-Dun-DUN! What will laid-back Duo Maxwell make of a cold and unreadable, Heero Yuy? Life is never as simple as it seems, and as Duo is sure to learn, nor are people. 


	3. A Simple Handshake

**Description:**  
In an early world of war, drafts, and poverty, it pays to be nameless. Duo Maxwell, a stranger and a man without a title, finds himself in a friendly village; confident that he can leave behind the warmth of friendship and forget the smiles and memories whenever he felt it right, he works to pursue a short-term lifestyle. However, love and friendship sometimes have strange ways of holding a man and keeping his soul a blessed prisoner.

**Rating:**  
M for language and adult content, moving most likely to NC-17 later on. I will warn you a chapter ahead, just in case ' pay attention to the Author's notes from here on in.

**Where the World Began**

_Crimson Release_

**Chapter 3**A Simple Handshake.

Smeared with the field, muddied with sweat and the breath of the sun, dark-haired and nameless, exhausted but masked indifferently, Heero Yuy loosed the laces on his mud-laden boots, leaving them to dry on the first porch step before creeping across the threshold of the back entrance. The sound of a meal in preparation in the kitchen to his right followed the Asian boy as he walked, stealthily, on the bare pads of his feet, his used socks crumpled in his hand. One step up, a silent step, another up, and another and then-

. . ._Crik._

A soft Japanese curse escaped his lips, and he bent forward; just as he crouched to launch himself up the stairs, he was tugged back by a pale hand clutching the waistband of his pants, to stand upright.  
Sighing in defeat Heero shoved his socks in his pocket and bowed his head.

"Good evening, Quatre."

"Good evening to you, Heero!" The blonde chirped and retracted his hand as the Japanese boy turned to face him. "Your day?"

"Fine, as always. Yours?"

"Interesting."

"Very good." Heero deadpanned and glanced up the staircase. "I was just about to go and wash up…"

"Take your time in the water, then; you look as if you've worked hard, and dinner won't be ready for a half of an hour yet."

"You know I'm happy with small, simple meals, Quatre." Heero said and shifted his eyes to the floor. "Why trouble yourself with hours in the kitchen on my account?"

"Only a single and half of an hour, Heero, and not just for you either. Tonight we've got- Oh, dear me!" The calm of his voice left him when a bang came from the kitchen, sounding as if a tin container had fallen. "Bother. Just bring him down to eat with you, when you've finished!" The blonde said as he rushed back down to the kitchen.

Quirking an arched brow, Heero shed his curiosity of his host's statement as he shed his shirt and worked his belt loose, while climbing to his room. Eyes cast downwards while he popped the button on his pants, he shouldered the door open and closed and stopped dead in his tracks with one hand holding up his now loose trousers, to meet the sleep-hazed violet of a stranger's eyes.

Blinking dusted sleep from his lashes, Duo sat up on his bed and habitually fingered his braid; satisfied that his hair was in fact, still woven, he yawned widely and pawed his tousled bangs from his eyes to get a better look at his intruder. Apparently, this blushing boy was not as comfortable with being half naked in front of Duo as he was to see him thus- and oh, he didn't mind at all. "Heero Yuy, I presume?" Duo said and leant his chin on his upturned palm, balanced on his knee, to watch Heero cover the trembling muscles beneath the bare skin of his chest and stomach with his shirt.

"That's right." Heero answered warily, and sidestepped towards his bed, giving Duo the impression of a startled, but ever-circling predator. Glaring through amazing depths of blue, Heero reached behind him to snatch a towel from a shelf on the left wall, and muttered: "I assume you are who I am to bring to dinner with me, ne? Your name?"

"Duo Maxwell, man of his word." Duo said quickly. "And you, Heero Yuy, are the first of my kind I have met who is anywhere near my age in quite sometime." Duo smiled widely and with agility Heero had not suspected of him, had leapt up to pump the others hand up and down with enthusiasm. "Nice to meet you!"

"A pleasure." Heero answered and pulled his hand back. "But I have a bath to take before I can socialize any further. Excuse me." After gathering a pair of slacks and a shirt from a drawer, the half dressed Heero strode past a still-grinning Duo and left for the Bath Room down the hall as quickly as he could manage.

- - -

A quarter of an hour passed in silence, and now, clean, relaxed and dressed in black tailored pants and a white button-down blouse, Heero returned to his room and nodded a greeting to Duo as he toweled his hair dry.

"Feel better?" The braided American asked, after allowing Heero a few moments of silence when he had lain back on his own bed.

"Much. I'm sorry for being short with you earlier."

Duo waved away his apology. "You were tired."

"How could you tell?" Heero deadpanned.

"Not really by looking at you, but in the way you shook my hand."

Heero turned his head to look sidelong at Duo. "My handshake?"

"Well sure!" Duo smirked and crossed his arms. "If I hadn't seen you topless as a male moments before, I would have mistaken you for a girl."

The Asian flushed and sat upward, eyes blazing a threatening indigo. "And just what do you mean by that, then?"

"Hold on, hold on, I wasn't insulting you. . . Exactly. . . Not intentionally, anyway. I just meant that your grip right then was kind of…"

Heero stood up, his fists by his sides. "Yes?"

"Well, kind of. . . I don't know!" Duo shrugged, suddenly wary of the closeness of this unpredictable youth. "Feminine?"

"Feminine?" Heero repeated in a low tone, his voice dropping to something like a dangerous purr in the back of his throat- like that of a wild cat, maybe, which rose the hair on the back of Duo's neck and brought about a well tuned instinct to run.  
Quicker than he had thought the other could move, Heero was suddenly standing behind Duo, and had seized both his wrists in a twist to meet the traveler's shoulder blades. Tightening his hold to grip the joints closer together, the Asian smiled to himself upon hearing his captive gasp and leant forward, his breath skimming the bare of Duo's neck and braid. "How then, could I do this as a woman? Unless you admit to have the strength and ability of a small child, I suggest you withdraw your previous comment or suffer the softness of a man who holds no down of his own."

"Well, aren't you poetic?" Duo hissed, his palms now tingling and numb. An application to a point of pressure brought back the stinging prickles in his fingertips and he whimpered, much to his shame. "Offense was not my intention, Heero."

"Retract it anyway." He squeezed harder and continued his reply with a sensual kind of smirk. "Or else I'll make you scream, like no woman ever could."

"Alright! Alright, I take it back!"

"_Domo_." Heero said in soft Japanese, and pushed Duo lightly forward so he would topple over onto his bed, face down. "I think we've waited long enough for Quatre to finish downstairs." Heero said, blankly. "What would you say to dinner?"

"I'd say fine, though your suggestion sounds more like an invitation of courting to some fair maiden." Duo replied in mirth, now righted and sitting properly on Heero's bed. His smile faded, however, when Heero stalked closer and bent to put his calloused palms against the flush of Duo's cheeks, all the while wearing an unreadable expression that did not reach his eyes.

"You are fair enough." He shrugged back his shoulders and moved to the door. "Invitation or not, you are hungry and so you should follow me."

- - -

Duo ate as silent as possible, sitting directly across from Heero and to the left of Quatre, who was making an effort to create some sort of conversation. Heero answered whatever questions brought his way with automatic politeness. It would seem to Duo, who was watching Heero with shy eyes, that the Japanese boy was more of an introvert by choice and would have preferred to be ignored, despite Quatre's attempts on his social skills. Duo could sympathize; after all, he may have been able to put a smile on for anyone and talk about nothing and make it seem interesting, but for the most part, he really would have liked to be ignored.

"So Duo," Quatre said and turned his smiling eyes on the fazed out braided boy, snapping him away from his thoughts and tearing his indiscreet gaze off of Heero. "Why don't you tell us about yourself?"

"Huh. . .? About my. . . Oh! _Right-Right-Right_!" He plastered a stupid grin on his face and rubbed the back of his neck, making his braid jolt between his shoulder blades and audibly hit the back of his chair.

"Welcome back to planet Earth, Duo. I hope you had a time as nice as the look on your face just now, wherever you flew off to." Quatre teased and took a sip of his wine.

"Sorry." Duo flushed and leant his arms on the tabletop. "Just lost in thought. What would you like to know?"

"Well, everything you can tell." Quatre replied over the glass brim between his fingers. "So we can get to know you better."

Duo glanced at Heero, who was gazing down at his plate with no real expression on his face, before looking back at Quatre. Starting with a traditional Maxwell smile, he leant forwards so he could look between the two contrasts of interest and began.  
"You want me to cast aside the strangers robe, eh? Well then, I guess I'll start from the beginning. I'm not native to these lands, you see, and so my story begins across the largest ocean, in the Far-Away America's..."

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Well, I've been done this chapter for awhile, but have had very little time in which to have it typed out (I've been writing during class) and I am so glad to have finally finished! It was a fun chapter, especially Heero's reaction to Duo. Was it believable, do you think?

Review-! Review-! Review- my pretties!


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